ROME — Pope Francis ended his three-day visit to Kazakhstan Thursday by appealing for expanded leadership roles for women in society.
Our “quest of peace” must increasingly involve women, the pontiff asserted in his closing remarks to the seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, because women “bestow care and life upon the world: they are themselves a path towards peace.”
The dignity of women must be defended and their social status improved as equal members of the family and of society, the pope insisted.
“Women must also be entrusted with greater positions and responsibilities,” he declared. “How many calamitous decisions might have been avoided, had woman been directly involved in decision-making!”
“We commit ourselves to ensuring that women are increasingly respected, acknowledged and involved!” he added.
Catholics attend the mass led by Pope Francis at Nur Alem Expo Center during his visit the Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan on September 14, 2022. Approximately 3,000 Catholics from Kazakhstan and neighboring countries attended the ritual. (Meiramgul Kussainova/Anadolu Agency via Getty)
During his address, the pope once again denounced “the utter folly of war,” insisting that in today’s world there are “too many cases of hatred and division, too little dialogue and effort to understand others.”
The pope also noted that the origins of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions go back to the attacks on September 11, 2001, after which “it was necessary to respond collectively to the incendiary atmosphere that terrorist violence sought to incite, and which threatened to turn religion into a grounds for conflict.”
“Pseudo-religious terrorism, extremism, radicalism and nationalism, dressed up in religious garb, nonetheless continue to foment fears and concerns about religion,” he stated, and it is more necessary than ever to “reaffirm the authentic and inalienable essence of religion.”
In a particular way, it is necessary to assert that “extremism, radicalism, terrorism and all other incentives to hatred, hostility, violence and war, whatever their motivations or goals, have nothing to do with the authentic spirit of religion and must be rejected in the most decisive terms possible,” he said.
“We defend everyone’s right to religion, to hope, to beauty: to Heaven,” he said.
The pope declared that “harsh and repressive forms of religion belong not to the future but to the past” and that what is needed are “mutual acceptance and respectful coexistence among different religions and cultures.”
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